ThAct : The Only Story

This blog is about The Only Story by Julian Barnes

Following are some points to ponder upon :

1.) Memory Novel (Structurally as well as thematically)

 Julian Barnes explores the concept of memory in this storey in a fascinating way. When we recount a narrative, such as the one told in this novel The Only Story, memory takes precedence. When we consider the history of a nation, civilization, or human people, we may wonder what it is, and it is possible that it is everyone's recollection. And history is written from that communal memory.  Our personal history is written in our memories. It's a private life that takes place in private locations. The life that is recounted or not narrated, told to everyone or not only to self, or a history that is just written for self and not shared with anyone else is only written for self. So memory is personal history, and personal history is memory.

 If there is a link between history and memory, it implies that we do not rely on memory as well. It could be a recollection from our own past. Julian Barnes aims to show us that we must be very careful with our memories in this work.

2.) Postmodern Novel

Julian Barnes is part of a group of British postmodernist writers, although postmodernism is more than just a literary movement. Barnes' The Only Story (2018) is unlike any of his other fictional works in that it exposes man's folly and experience of life's terrible powers, such as sorrow, estrangement, breakup, alienation, and purposelessness, while avoiding agnosticism or sustenance. Barnes analyses a person's perception of being excluded from the complete mechanical assemblage of social rituals and rites in The Only Story (2018).

3.) Theme of Love(Passion+Suffering)

We might call love a passion, but it cannot exist in isolation from sorrow. This is how Barnes intends to approach the subject of love from a philosophical standpoint. Passion turns to suffering in The Only Story. The narrative of Paul, a 19-year-old young man, and his deep attraction to Susan MacLeod, a 48-year-old married woman with two daughters. This is a storey of how passion can turn into suffering.

"Would you rather love the more, and suffer the more; or love the less, and suffer the less? That is, I think, finally, the only real question"

 (Barnes, 2018, p. 3)

 Paul is defending himself, claiming that falling in love with a middle-aged woman was a mistake. But, while we're in love, can we think of all of these things? Well, we can't since we aren't in love if we think. That is how he was dragged down the path to sorrow.

"You may point out – correctly – that it isn’t a real question. Because we don’t have the choice. If we had the choice, then there would be a question. But we don’t, so there isn’t. Who can control how much they love? If you can control it, then it isn’t love. I don’t know what you call it instead, but it isn’t love."

Paul believed that love was joyful when he was younger. However, towards the end of the novel, he has discovered that it is full of anguish and pain.

4.)Critique of Crosswords

 Mr. Gordon Macleaod and Joan are two people who are playing crosswords in this novel. Julian Barnes depicts the subtleties of social life in twentieth-century England in his novel "The Only Story." The crossword puzzle was such an important part of this ancient British pastime that it was found to be significantly engaged by multiple characters in this tale.Julian Barnes, a postmodernist novelist, is uninterested in the usual meaning of crossword puzzles.

Take a look at how the story's narrator, Paul Roberts, describes the hidden features of this British pastime:

 “Everyone in the Village, every grown-up – or rather, every middle-aged person – seemed to do crosswords: my parents, their friends, Joan, Gordon Macleod. Everyone apart from Susan. They did either The Times or the Telegraph; though Joan had those books of hers to fall back on while waiting for the next newspaper.I regarded this traditional British activity with some snootiness.I was keen in those days to find hidden motives preferably involving hypocrisy behind the obvious ones.

Apart from Joan, it is Gordon Macleod who is found doing crosswords in the novel. On two occasions, he is found solving the crosswords with Paul Roberts.

The reference to 'Crossword' might be said to be scattered throughout the work. It's been dubbed a "British time-pass activity" by some. It's also the most snobbish criticism of the practise. Apart from these cultural connections, the crossword puzzle serves as a metaphor for studying Joan's character as a contrast to Susan's. It's also worth looking at Paul Roberts, Susan, and Gordon Macleod's tense triangular relationship.

5.) Paul - The unreliable narrator

The novel's unreliable narrator is Paul. Because whatever he tells the audience is based on his own memory. He claims he's never kept a diary. So, how can we trust our own memories? It's a huge problem. Paul isn't sure what he's been through in his life. He is debating the issues raised in this novel.

He brought his world in an awkward manner, never quite fitting in or feeling at ease in his own flesh. His profession as an usher at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh allows him to explore his passions for art, theater, and music. Paul has the irrational belief that the art world is a perfect fantasy world, and he utilises art as a narcotic to escape his mundane existence. He has no ambition to join the art world that he admires; instead, he prefers to observe others. Paul despises his instructors, classmates, neighbours, and family members, whom he perceives to be hopelessly narrow-minded.

6.)Susan- Mad woman in the attic

We can draw parallels between Bertha and Susan Macleod's personalities. Bertha was afflicted by his husband, and Susan is afflicted by something similar. She develops an alcoholic personality. To Paul, she tells lies. She is tethered to responsibility in some way. His own husband assaulted her. She had an adulterous affair with Paul, and she yearns for love and warmth, but she is continually the victim of hatred and sexual pleasure, and she has been beaten numerous times.

Bertha Mason, who is locked away in the attic of Thornfield Hall by her husband Mr Rochester, inspired the title of the book. She is a threatening figure, brimming with unbridled passion, fury, sensuality, and craziness, and behaving in a bestial manner.

7.) Joan - One who understood existential enigma

We learn about Joan's character thanks to Paul's narrative. Susan is telling Paul a storey. Gerald's sister is Joan. Joan suffered greatly after Gerald's death because Gerald was a close relative of Joan's, and his passing caused Joan a great deal of pain. Joan has the ability to protect herself from the harm. We might wonder whether there was nothing wrong with Joan because Susan is going through a difficult time in her life. Joan used to live with yeppers and dogs and now has another dog named Sibyl.

Joan is a tennis player and Paul's partner. Joan has had numerous affairs with the wealthy man. Joan's attitude about life changed after Gerald died. And when a person is depressed, they seek out companion animals rather than human beings. In this novel, Joann was doing the same thing. Sibyl is her ideal companion.

8.)Whom do you think is responsible for the tragedy in the story? Explain with reason.

Because of Paul, this catastrophe occurred. He was born with the ability to flee an unpleasant and difficult environment. Because of his departure, his childishness, the ship of his relationship was sunk. When his relationship ended, he began to place blame on others. Because, at the time the love storey begins, Paul is 19 years old and Susan is 48 years old. Paul indicated that Gordon is to blame for domestic violence, and that if Gordon had not acted violently with Susan, this tragedy would not have occurred.

Thank you...

 

ThAct : Gun Island

 Hello Readers...

This blog is in response of the thinking activity in our department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This blog is about Amitav Ghosh's Gun Island.

Let us look at some question :

1.) How does Amitabh Ghosh use myth of Gun Merchant "Bondugi Sadagar" and Mansa Devi to initiate  discussion on the issue of Climate Change and Migration/ Refugee Crisis/ Human Trafficking?

Ghosh wants to convey about the major situation we are facing today: climate change and migration, in Gun Island, by using myth. This tale of The Gun Merchant and Manasa Devi was cleverly exploited by Amitav Ghosh. The entire drama revolves around the pilgrimage of both Gun gun and Dinanath. Both the characters and the events are interconnected. It's a storey that's somewhat comparable. Ghosh aims to convey the message of climate change and migration to the world through myth.Gun Island is a narrative of migration and journey, laced with myth and folklore, and set against the backdrop of climate change's worsening crisis. It is a complex plot that weaves together human and animal characters, past and present, natural and supernatural elements. Gun Island looks at several types of migration, from people and entire communities being uprooted from their native place to the recent severe shifts in migratory patterns of various species.

2.) How does Amitabh Ghosh make use of "etymology" of common words to sustain mystery and suspense in the narrative?

The study of the history of words is known as etymology. By extension, a word's etymology refers to its origin and evolution across time. In this work, Ghosh uses a lot of words that have etymologies.

1.Gun Island

2.Bhut - Ghost 

3.Possession 

4.Land of Palm Sugar Candy

5.Land of Kerchieves 

6.Island of Chains

1.Gun Island

A single foundry produced all weapons, including bullets. The word "getto" means "foundry" in Venetian dialect. The term "ghetto" comes from the word "getto" and refers to a Jewish neighbourhood. Three seemingly unrelated elements make up Venice's alternative vocabulary: hazelnuts, bullets, and weapons! Hazelnuts have a similar shape to bullets, which are essential for firearms! "Banadiq" is the Arabic term for Venice, and it is the root of the German and Swedish words "Venedig." In Arabic, "Banadiq" became "al-Bunduqeyya." As a result, this gun is referred to as Venice instead of gun! The final meaning of the title is a trader who went to Venice and discovered a ghetto-foundry.

2.Bhut - Ghost 

Dinanath Datta and Tipu have an email exchange going on. "What does "Bhuta" mean," Tipu inquired of Deen. Is it supposed to mean "ghost" or anything else? According to Deen, the Bangla word bhoot/bhuta means "to be" or "to manifest" because the Sanskrit root "bhu" signifies "to be" or "to manifest." As a result, "bhuta" simply means "being" or "presence." The word "bhuta" can also refer to the past, as in "a previous state of being."

3.Possession

The term "possession" is mentioned throughout the work. When a demon takes control of someone, this is known as possession. And the demon is nothing more than a metaphor for greed, a made-up creature. So possession isn't the same as when someone's soul enters our body and everything! We have seized control of that greed because of our own greed. It's also a type of awakening; you're becoming aware of things you've never thought or felt before. To put it another way, possession is the awareness of things.

4.Land of Palm Sugar Candy

"Taal-misrir-dish" is the Bengali word for it. Desh denotes a country, taal is a type of palm tree that produces sugar syrup, and misri denotes sugar sweet in Bengali. According to Cinta, the Arabic word "Misr" is used to refer to Egypt. As a result, Egypt is the name given to this location.

5.Land of Kerchieves 

Cinta inquired about the Bengali equivalent of this word. Rumaali-desh was the name Deen gave her. Rumaal is a handkerchief in Bengali. It's about Rumelia, according to Chinta, and this Rumeli-Hisari is in Turkey.

6.Island of Chains

"Shikol-dwip" is the Bengali term for this. This is a reference to Sikelia, which is now known as Sicily. As a result, Sicily is referred to as the "Island of Chains."

3.) There are many Italian words in the novel.Have  you tried to translate these words into English or Hindi with the help of Google Translate Aap.If so how is machine transltion help in proper translation of Italian words into English or Hindi?

I looked for Italian words in the novel and used Google Translate to translate them.Click here to view the the spreadsheet.

4.) What are your views on the myth or history in the novel Gun Island to draw attention of the readers towards contemporary issues like Climate Change and Migration ?

Yes, this story is clearly meant to attract the reader's attention to issues such as climate change and migration. Because we are currently confronted with numerous issues related to climate change and migration. It is the writer's responsibility to use art to educate the world's inhabitants.

5.) Is their any connection between "The Great Derangement" and  "Gun Island" ?

Yes, "Gun Island" is a sequel to Ghosh's previous novel "The Great Derangement." Because "What Function Does Literature Play in the Context of Climate Change?" is the central question of this book. Why aren't authors writing about it in their books? And how will they be able to communicate through literature? It claimed that there was insufficient contemporary literature that addressed climate change as a serious present concern. As a result, Gun Island is used to illustrate or explain such difficulties. Literature may help us understand significant challenges such as climate change and migration.Gun Island may appear to be a fun, fast-paced adventure narrative on the surface, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface that's easy to overlook on first reading. 

Thank you...

Thinking Activity : unit - 2 The Joys of Motherhood

Hello readers...

This blog is in response of the thinking activity in our department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This activity is based on unit -2 of our paper which is "The Joys of Motherhood" by Buchi Emecheta.

◼ Glorifying images of Mother (one witnesses the collaps of glorifying images of the African Mother)

Buchi Emecheta's most notable novel  The Joys of Motherhood is a novel which id depicting the wide concern of an Aftican mother. The novel presents a sustained investigation of the African woman's experience, a much-needed issue in current African literary discourse, in addition to demonstrating "the strength of characterization, manipulation of point of view, and narrative style." 

The most important question to consider is whether the academy today has a clearer picture of African women's conditions than it did more than two decades ago, when Maryse Conde spoke out against the "heap of myths, rapid generalisations, and patent untruths" that have clouded African women's personalities and inner realities, and called on African women to speak for themselves. Even as African women are beginning to assert themselves, I find it troubling.

Emecheta, I thought, gave us a much-needed peek into the reality of African women, a society that is harsher than that of African men since women are doubly disenfranchised. As a female in Africa, the antithesis of male, she faces sexual oppression; as an African, the antithesis of white in an ever-colonized nation, she faces racial oppression as well. Emecheta's protagonist, Nnu Ego, became for me the poster female of Africa, a symbol of all oppressed African women, and her storey sensitised me to all the wrongs done to African women, wrongs that could only be righted by feminist discourse.

In The Joys of Motherhood, Buchi Emecheta argues that the love that links a woman to her kid is a type of bondage from which she will not be able to escape until she dies, and that this bond will keep her in a condition that denies her any freedom or self-development. The reader will read exchanges in which women discuss "The Joys of Motherhood" throughout the narrative.The word motherhood appears frequently throughout the work, as motherhood is seen as the most essential aspect of their social lives beliefs and traditions While reading, the reader might undoubtedly conjure up an image of Nigerian Ibo women.

In Nigeria, a woman without children is in some ways incomplete, and the only way a woman may survive is to have children.Despite the fact that the reader knows from the beginning of the storey that the heroine, Nnu Ego, is terribly dependent and determined, Emecheta tenderloins that idea throughout the novel by contradicting it with her total belief that a woman without children in Africa is completed. Emecheta went so far as to strike at the basis of the protagonist's understanding through chronicling her battles and struggles during her motherhood after marriage, in the city When the women's ultimate objective remains to be to achieve, the title is ironic.

Rather than enjoying motherhood, I prefer to call it "motherhood." In truth, the irony in the novel's narrator is unquestionably necessary.In order to comprehend the novel and the overall impression of "Joys of Motherhood" describes the mother in the context of love and responsibility of a mother as every mothet is having.The novel's concluding lines reveal the irony in the title: 

"She died quietly there, with no child to grasp her hand and no friend to talk to her."

She'd never really made many friends because she'd been so preoccupied with her responsibilities as a mother.

Thank you...

Thinking Activity : Unit -3 A Dance of the Forest

Hello readers...

This blog is in response of the thinking activity in our department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. This activity is based on unit -3 of our paper which is A Dance of the Forest. Before we go deep into the major themes lets get some important imformation about the writer and the play itself.

A Dance of the Forests

One of Wole Soyinka's most well-known pieces, A Dance of the Forests, was commissioned as part of a bigger celebration of Nigerian independence. It was a divisive play that enraged many Nigerians at the time of its premiere, owing to its condemnation of political corruption in the country.

Soyinka returned to Nigeria in 1959 after attending university in England to compose this play, immersing himself in Yoruba tradition as a method of reconnecting with his roots. The play follows a group of mortals who summon the spirits of the dead in the hopes of receiving guidance from these wiser spirits, only to learn that the spirits are just as petty and imperfect as they are.

Many have viewed the play as a cautionary tale for Nigerians on the eve of their newfound independence, reminding them to be critical and seeking, and cautioning them against growing complacent. It also serves as a symbol for being cautious while not romanticising pre-colonial Africa. A Dance of the Forests was deemed one of Soyinka's crowning works when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, and he was described as "one of the finest poetical playwrights that have written in English."

Following are the major themes of the novel :

Atonement

The play's central theme is atonement. The Dead Man and Dead Woman are brought back to life in order for the four mortals who mistreated them in the past to realise and atone for their wrongdoings. While the mortals are clueless for much of the play, they finally learn that the Dead Man and Dead Woman's visitation is to teach them a lesson, and by the end, they have experienced a form of conversion, realising that they had sinned before.

Power that is tainted

Another prominent issue in the play is tainted power, as exemplified by the characters of Mata Kharibu and Madame Tortoise. As we return to the king's palace, we observe how Madame Tortoise uses her beauty and power over men to sow dissension. Mata Kharibu has also been corrupted by his tremendous power, as seen by his insistence that his warriors battle against their better judgement and his ruthless punishment of free thought. Wole Soyinka recounts a storey that teaches the reader that all power is corruptible, and that just because someone is given authority does not guarantee they are moral or ethical.

Trauma & Wounds

The play portrays how people carry trauma and wounds from the past around with them, and how everyone has a sensitive part of their past that haunts and affects them. The Forest Head is aware of this and tries to bring these wounds to light in the hopes of allowing those who have been injured in the past to heal.

The Previous Era

Despite the fact that it takes place over the course of a single day, the play does not have a strictly linear structure. As we rapidly learn, the storey is about previous transgressions, and each mortal character has numerous identities, symbolising both who they are now and who they were in the past. The present is stacked on top of the past, as if to emphasise that nothing from our past is ever truly gone, that we are descendants of patterns and events that came before us and still effect us now. The play's plot is around how people must overcome and learn from their past experiences.

Nature

The drama takes set in a forest, and throughout it, various parts of the natural world come to life to participate in the mortals' reckoning. The Forest Head is a ghost who rules the forest, and during the greeting of the Dead Man and Dead Woman, various spirits representing various natural elements are summoned to speak. Spirits of the Rivers, Spirits of the Palms, Spirits of the Volcanos, and others are among them. All of these natural elements are personified in poem, demonstrating the link between the human and natural worlds.

The fact that the Dead Woman was killed when pregnant with a child is one of the unanswered aspects of her storey. She returns to the living world with a pregnant belly, and the foetus appears as a Half-Child during the welcome ritual, torn between being influenced by the spirit realm and remaining with his mother. "I who yet await a mother/Feel this dread/Feel this dread,/I who run from womb/To branded womb cry it now/I'll be born dead/I'll be born dead," the Half-Child says when granted the chance to speak. The child is a tragic figure, assuming the role of the victim.

Ritual

Ritual and tradition are another key motif as well as a formal element of the play. Throughout the film, we watch the characters going through the motions in order to gain a better understanding of their situation. The ceremony for the mortals' self-discovery, in which the mortals must relive their misdeeds, the Dead Man and Dead Woman must be questioned, and the mortals must divulge their secret wrongs, is one of these rites.

The Dance of Welcome, in which the spirits of the forest perform and deliver monologues, is another rite that takes place. The Dance of the Half-Kid then decides who the unborn child will travel with. Rituals, dances, and formal representations frequently serve as stand-ins for actual events. In fact, the entire play can be viewed as a stringing together.

Thank you...